The Magdalen Chapel

The Magdalen Chapel on Cowgate is distinguished by a mid-sixteenth-century tower and spire, a modest but enduring presence in the heart of Edinburgh's Old Town. Built between fifteen forty-one and fifteen forty-four through a bequest from the merchant Michael MacQueen and his widow, Janet Rynd, the chapel was originally intended as an almshouse and a place for poor men to pray for the soul of Mary, Queen of Scots.